Born into a lower middle.class Roman Catholic family with a publican father, a brotehr who was a civil engineer and a nother who was a medical student, William first appears on sea crew records in April 1907 as an Able Seaman and he signed to Titanic after working on either the Olympic or Oceanic.  

During the sinking he jumped overboard witha  group of crewmen and swam to lifeboat 4. He was hauled into the boat and lost consciousness during the night. He was still alive, albeit unconcious when rescued by the Carpathia but was pronounced dead hours later and buried at sea.